Stems 3-17 cm, mostly glabrous. Leaves pairs unequal; stipules 0.1-0.4 mm; blade 3-20 mm. Inflores-cences 20-60+-flowered. Flow-ers: perianth 2.5-3 mm; hypanth-ium green, becoming brown and hard, 10-ribbed distally; sepals erect to spreading, concave, cen-tral portion green, fleshy, white, scarious portion forming an ovate to orbiculate apex, 1-1.3+ mm wide, becoming deciduous with age; staminodes ca. 0.5 mm. Seeds 0.9-1.1 mm. Flowering spring. Dry, sandy areas, sand dunes, desert washes; 50-700 m; Ariz., Calif.; Mexico.

Plant: Annual, prostrate to ascending, glabrous to ± hairy, taprooted; stems many, 3-17 cm Leaves: simple; stipules 0.1-0.4 mm, ± ovate, scarious, ± fringed, white; blade entire, 3-20 mm, oblanceolate; vein 1 INFLORESCENCE: cyme, axillary; flowers 20-60+; pedicels 0.5-2.5 mm Flowers: 2.5-3 mm; hypanthium in fruit ± cylindric; calyx abruptly expanded above; sepals 5, free, ± 1.2-1.5 mm, ovate to reniform, green, fleshy, margin wide, scarious, ± jagged, white, deciduous; petals 0; fertile stamens 1-2, sterile stamens 14-19, ± 0.5 mm, thread-like, arising from hypanthium rim; ovary superior, style 2-branched in upper 1/2, 0.3-0.4 mm Fruit: Fruit: utricle, sessile, ovoid; teeth 8-10, minute; Seed 1, ± 1 mm, ovoid, ± compressed, tan, red dot near narrow end Misc: Sandy slopes, flats, washes; 50-700 m.; Jan-May